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Published: July 14th 2019
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Dirty Looks From Nanny
Saturday morning leaving my hotel room, I received the evil eye from a lady senior in years. I was somewhat baffled to say the least. I certainly never bet her at bingo as I never play it and I never overtook her at the Werther's original aisle. It was only walking past a mirror in the corridor I realised why. My t-shirt was on inside out. Important lesson. Check mirror before leaving and not after.
Padova.
After the battle of the Euganean Hills, this route came as a nice surprise. It was a 35km round trip. Thankfully I got the hang of the route maps though I still couldn't get the app to work for me. I was expecting the route markers to be circular signs but they are wee stickers. You do learn to keep an eye out for them.
This cycle was mainly along canals and rivers. Along the route it was fairly industrialised on the left, residential on the right. The industrial zones were not ugly so didn't ruin it. I would not recommend a pub crawl on this as quite often one side was a five foot drop into a river. The
other a five foot drop into a field of sunflowers. It was flat all the way so ideal for the not so frequent cyclist.
My lack of direction did make an expected appearance in Padova when I lost sight of the five inch route stickers, however on a trip like this you never really get lost as everything is new.
With the help of Google maps I refound the route and began the cycle back to HQ.
The Road to Nowhere.
Part of the route back was along the canal again. I remember when I started off thinking to myself if I have time later I might go a little longer to see what's further up. Well my map reading is not as good as I thought I missed my turn off and after a good 20 minutes cycling thought this looks wrong. Well it was. I came across an iron bridge and I thought I recognize this. It was Arqua Petrarca from day one. It was not on my list of places to revisit. Indeed I was actually on the stretch of canal a day earlier when I was lost, pity I didn't remember earlier. I was
concerned Google maps would send me on busy routes so I had no choice but to go back to the point I missed.
There is No Drying Out
Being Irish you are blessed with the ability to spot rain clouds and another storm was brewing. Operation clothes wash n dry had to be abandoned the day before but now because of my directionless brain , a storm was close. This time there was no Peugeot garage nearby and that second pair of underwear was needed ( only joking - I have three), so I had to make a burst for it. Thankfully made it back with 20 minutes to spare. A journey that should of been 35km ended up been 60km. I was not well pleased.
Lucky I did get back. It was a storm and the hail was torrential, worse than yesterday.
The Piano man
Eventually the rain and hail subsided so I could go out and get some food. I spotted a chap in a wheelchair with no legs pushing himself, shirt drenched, looked like he was after being out in the rain. I offered to push him but he politely declined. I suspect he saw
me cycling around lost and didn't want to take the risk. 30 minutes later , he was at his usual corner, belting out the tunes on his keyboard.
Meanwhile back the hotel another guy on a keyboard was butchering Amore. I was too tired to pretend to be interested and didn't want to risk the wrath of Nanny again.
Vicenza
I actually thought this was known as little Venice. Well it's not. That comes tomorrow. I think that really sums up the quality of tourism information you are getting here. It's a bit like getting a report from North Korea on the benefits of capitalism.
This was really enjoyable. It was a 35km cycle then to get a train back to Padova and then Abano Terme. I started early this morning about 9:45. The bike rentals are built for sturdiness and you won't cover the distance you would on a normal hybrid or road bike so it took me about 3.5 hours to complete the journey and that includes getting lost the odd time. Thankfully the app worked today and that was a great help.
This was amazing. I got to cycle through some country roads then through
official routes in between corn fields , hay fields and sunflower fields. I never saw so many churches in one area. In fact in one place to left and right there were huge Church steeples. I found myself asking, do they have mass wars to rob parishioners from one parish to the other.
Trigger Happy
When you rent a car you do cover a greater area but do you see more? the driver definitely doesn't. Whereas on a bike you get to enjoy it all for a lot longer. It's then I realized I could stop every few moments and take a photo. I had to stop otherwise I would still be cycling to Vicenza.
Italia 90
One town had a dedicated sign to Italia 90. Brought back happy memories when Ireland were first team to make quarter finals without winning a game. How we wish those days were back.
If you leave even earlier than I did you should then get an opportunity to stop off and visit one or two of the town's on route. I didn't but I was happy just to take in the scenery around me and make it to Vicenza.The good
thing about a self guide your is you can choose where and when you go. Granted when you can get lost in a shoebox like me it can be daunting but take your mistakes on board and it will be no problem.
Vicenza
When I made it to Vicenza I lost the routes again (are you spotting a common theme here) and the app gave up on me; though I can't say I blame it. Again getting lost didn't matter. You could be forgiven for thinking it was little Venice as it has some rivers and the old streets had the old historical look about them.
A Sunday was an ideal day as the streets were fairly empty and made exploration all the easier.
I found myself with a dilemma. I had to get the train back to Padova then a connection train to Abano Terme. There was one train at 4:02, then connection train at 4:40. I really wanted to explore more so decided I would get 4:26 train. The next connection train from it was 6:10, so I had to decide if I would wait and get the connecter or cycle from Padova again to Abano
Terme. As the idea came to my head then there was no debating. The sun was shining, this time next week I will not have the opportunity and what difference would another 13km make. So I decided I would cycle back to Abano Terme from Padova.
I found a wee park decided to cycle in it. Then found a side street. Thought to myself I will cycle direct not too get lost. Then I saw another side street thought that looks nice, sure I will remember where I came from. Did I remember? Of course not. I was lost again. My phone was down to 8%.
A good tip bring a backup battery pack but make sure it's fully charged (unlike me). I missed the train but got one at 5:02 and did cycle back from Padova. I was well on the way home by the time the connector train would have arrived. In fact I don't think I lost much time by cycling back. So if you ever do this trip, take your time in Vicenza, explore and if it's a nice evening get off at Padova and enjoy a nice Riverside cycle.
Today I done about
60km when it should of been 35km. However I think if I got the connector I would be disappointed for not doing the extra kms.
Tomorrow it's Chioggia. A mini bus picks us up at 8:45am so an early start.It's known as little Venice. It is 55km back to Abano Terme, I have just realized that. Thought it was 35km - ooops. I better keep my exploration in check and fingers crossed getting lost to a minimum otherwise I will be breaking my distance record in a day.
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